Do we need a tragic narrative to rouse us from our own stupors of pursued self-satisfaction? How about a story of self-indulged actions that lead to widespread tragedy and death?

Perhaps the self-absorbed celebration of Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez, the couple who set off a smoke bomb at their child’s gender-reveal party in Yucaipa, CA last year serves as an example. Their actions sparked the El Dorado fire that burned nearly 23,000 acres, killed a fire-fighter and forced tens of thousands of evacuations, injured 13 people and destroyed five homes.

But what is the encore for a more permanent global arousal, one that might rouse 7.8 billion humans occupying a warming planet which many scientists say can ultimately only support some 10 billion? Is it more destructive and intense storms, droughts, wildfires that create their own weather, or a global pandemic?

How about all at once? Will that get the attention of Republican leadership whose basic concern has not been country or Earth, but just self? Will that stop efforts to stymy democracy and voting?

In a little over a month of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s been a season of deadly record-shattering millennial-type extremes.

Four major heat waves broiled the Western US, unheard-of triple-digit temperatures in Oregon and Washington state causing hundreds of heat-related deaths. Wildfires are tearing through the West ravaging hundreds of thousands of acres in California, Oregon and British Columbia.

They are so massive they create their own weather, smoke traveling thousands of miles to the East Coast, as the image from space shows. There are health warnings in Connecticut and Maryland, and skies above New York City are apocalyptically hazy and red.

From Germany to China, two-months of rain in a few days caused death and destruction. Nearly 200 in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands perished from floods and mudslides. In central China, over 30 trapped subway riders died from catastrophic flooding, hundreds trapped in subway cars.

Signs show that there are more extremes to come, but the world-wide movement to reduce carbon emissions is being slow-walked. U.N. reports show increases in fossil fuel production rather than cuts.

And what is the reaction of leadership in America? Democrats passed pandemic relief and  propose infrastructure spending, covering climate change mitigation.  But Republicans are the party of No?

Republicans are united though.  But it’s against mitigation of climate change, against people investment. Their focus is their own jobs, their control of government.

Corporations most readily have demonstrated their allegiance to profit over country, stuck with, and financed faithless, authoritarian, Republicans through thick and thin. They even vociferously supported the Republican president through two impeachments, and through his many lawless gambits. Most – for a few weeks — halted their support after the January 6^th insurrection that Trump instigated.

Now many have resumed their support of insurrection-supporting, anti-democratic Republicans. Many are doing it secretly through “Dark Money,” which topped $1 billion in 2020. The John Roberts’ SCOTUS court approved “Dark Money” in several decisions over the last decade. “Corporations are People,” SCOTUS has exclaimed — actually hidden people funding anti-democratic endeavors with deep pockets.

They disperse money everywhere to continue to pursue the corporate agenda through a heavily enhanced corporate infrastructure of thousands of lobbyists, think tanks, and organizations that disperse hidden money through patriotic, high-sounding organization names like The Federalist Society, Crossroads GPS, Climate Works, Americans for Job Security, & Environment America.

With Dark Money, The Federalist Society not only helped Republican-controlled states write legislation to restrict voting but also picked radical right-wing judges for Donald Trump.

For corporate leaders, there is no narrative or force tragic enough to stop their support of corporate control except the voice of non-white American voters.

Their most important Republican Party agents are leaders in states the GOP controls and in national leaders they have purchased like House Minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, in the House and Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in the Senate.

The corporate plan is to make McCarthy and McConnell both majority leaders in 2023 by stopping votes for Democrats in 2022 and beyond in 30 Republican-controlled states. Restricting the Democratic voters in these 30 states will give them the presidency in 2024 as well.

That is the force that Republicans and corporations want to stop: voters who vote against them.